Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

The country that trade forgot, or geography did

Laos is the only Southeast Asian nation without a coastline, hemmed in by Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China. That landlocked position has shaped its history: it once sat at the crossroads of overland trade routes through the Mekong region, yet it never developed the port cities that powered its neighbours' economies. The Mekong River, which runs along much of its western border, remains its most important waterway - a reminder that even a country without a sea can still be defined by water.

A river that refuses to belong to one country

The Danube is one of Europe's great waterways, and Hungary is just one of the ten countries it touches. It rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows eastwards through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. Budapest, Hungary's capital, is often called the "Queen of the Danube" because the river splits the city into Buda and Pest. Few rivers in the world pass through so many capitals and so many borders.

The world's smallest ocean, hiding in plain sight

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans, covering roughly 14 million square kilometres. It is also the shallowest and the coldest, and much of its surface is covered by sea ice for part of the year. For centuries it was treated as a frozen barrier rather than a route, but shrinking ice has made it increasingly relevant to shipping and scientific research. Its name comes from the Greek word for bear - a nod to the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor that point towards the north.

A bear, a wood, and a very English map

Winnie-the-Pooh lives in the Hundred Acre Wood, a fictional setting inspired by Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, where A. A. Milne walked with his son Christopher Robin. The wood is not vast - in the stories it feels like a whole world, with a handful of clearings, a stream and a bridge where Pooh and Piglet play Poohsticks. The name "Winnie" came from a real black bear at London Zoo, and "Pooh" from a swan the family once met.